ARE YOU THE ONE \/\/FREE\\\\
Are You the One? (often abbreviated as AYTO?) is an American reality television series featuring a group of men and women are secretly paired into couples via a matchmaking algorithm. While living together, the contestants try to identify all of these "perfect matches." If they succeed, the entire group shares a prize of up to $1 million. All couples in the first seven seasons were male-female, while in the eighth season a contestant's match could be someone of any gender.
ARE YOU THE ONE
Over the course of each season, the contestants go on dates with partners determined by competitions (or, in the seventh season only, by the "fate button"), and have the opportunity to learn in the "truth booth" if a given couple is a correct match. Once the truth booth confirms a perfect match, that couple will go to the honeymoon suite and will automatically be paired up for the remainder of the match ceremonies. At the end of each episode, the contestants pair up in a "matching ceremony" and learn how many perfect matches they have, but not which matches are correct.[1] From season 3 onward, the prize was reduced any time that the house failed to identify any matches other than those already confirmed via the truth booth.
On June 26, 2019, the eighth season began broadcasting on MTV.[2] This series was marked as the first to exclusively feature openly LGBT and sexually fluid contestants, a decision that was met with critical acclaim.[3][4][5]
On March 3, 2022, it was announced that the show would be revived as an international version by Paramount+.[6] On December 8, 2022, it was announced that Kamie Crawford would be the new host, and that the ninth season would premiere on January 18, 2023.[7]
Filmed in San Juan, Puerto Rico and premiered on October 6, 2014. This time, one guy has two matches which means that there will be eleven girls, but only ten boys. Christina is revealed as the first girl of the threeway couple. It is a race between Christina and another girl to find her perfect match and be confirmed as such in the Truth-Booth. The first couple of the threeway-couple to do so will end up in the honeymoon-suite. The other girl will have to leave empty-handed. However this only applied if one of those two matches were confirmed in the Truth Booth. If neither Christina nor the other girl get sent home, and the group wins the money by getting 10 matches at the matchup ceremony, then all 21 contestants will win money.[10][11]
Filmed in Kona, Hawaii. Season three premiered on September 24, 2015. This season had a rule change, if there is a "black out" at a matchup ceremony (meaning no beams of light other than already-confirmed matches) then the house gets $250,000 deducted from their prize.[12][13]
Filmed in Cabarete, Dominican Republic. Season five premiered on January 11, 2017. This season featured 2 big changes. When a couple gets sent into the truth booth to see if they are a perfect match, the rest of the house can either vote to see if they are a perfect match, or earn $150,000, and not see the result of the couple. This only will pertain to certain weeks. Also, if the house blacks out at a match-up ceremony, their money will decrease by 50% each time instead of $250,000.[15]
Filmed in Kona, Hawaii, Hokukano Bayhouse. Season seven premiered on August 15, 2018. This season featured a change in the rules to get a date, the contestants no longer had to compete against each other to win a date. Instead, Terrance would choose two people, one guy and one girl, to come up and press a button stopping a scrolling wheel of faces at random of the opposite sex. Two guys and two girls would be chosen at random to go on a four-person date to couple off as they choose. Everyone back at the house then voted whichever couple they thought most likely to be a 'Perfect Match' into the Truth Booth.[17]
Filmed in Kona, Hawaii. Season eight premiered on June 26, 2019.[2] For the first time on Are You the One?, all cast members were bisexual, with no gender limitations on their potential perfect matches.[3][4] This season received a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Reality Program in 2020.[18]
Filmed in Gran Canaria, Spain. Season nine premiered on January 18, 2023. For the first time in the shows history, the whole cast found their perfect matches in only nine weeks, instead of the normal ten weeks.
On March 22, 2017, spin-off Are You The One: Second Chances[19] premiered. The series, filmed in Melbourne, Australia and hosted by Karamo Brown, featured ten perfect matches from previous seasons returning to compete in tasks designed to test the strength of their bonds. Each week, teams could add to their potential winnings, but individual contestants had the opportunity to take their team's winnings from their partner and remove their team from the game.[20]
A typical episode started with a challenge, in which contestants compete in physical and mental tasks. The housemates often compete in pairs, with the winners being awarded special dates and the chance to enter the Truth Booth.
The show outdid itself with the masterful Season 8. MTV made an already great concept better by casting 16 sexually fluid or queer contestants. First, their options for perfect matches increased and made for a more complex puzzle. Second, the LGBTQIA+ representation nourished reality dating TV fans looking for queer identities in the media. This season was widely and justifiably acclaimed by fans. In a world of heteronormativity, Are You the One? was a breath of fresh air.
Despite all the compelling TV goodness, Are You the One? stopped filming for serious and respectable reasons. MTV paused production in 2021, after cast member Gianna Hammer alleged another contestant of drugging and sexually assaulting her during the filming of Season 5. Other contestants from that season claimed the production was corrupt, and there was a cover-up to hide incidents of racism. The behind-the-scenes drama resulted in the show going off-air indefinitely.
News like this pops the escapist bubble of reality TV. It keeps viewers, the show itself, and society in check. I can only hope that the production team has made changes to ensure the safety of everyone involved for this new season. Perhaps four years away has given the creators lots of time to work on evaluating and rebuilding the program, in order to prioritize contestant well-being.
The current season of Are You The One? was filmed in Gran Canaria, Spain. Most of the previous seasons were filmed in Hawaii, but this is not the first time the show has ventured to another location. Other spots include San Juan, Puerto Rico, Cabarete, Dominican Republic, and New Orleans, Louisiana.
She does such a great job there that I was excited to see her takeover as the Are You The One? host. Unfortunately, it seems as if this Paramount+ version gives her even less to do than the MTV version gave Terrence J and Ryan Devlin. She occasionally offers commentary and advice, but is definitely not utilized much.
The competitions chosen to win dates were also very random at times. Sometimes they were just silly party games that never tested how much the contestants knew about each other or encouraged real self-reflection. Some of the competitions were dating term quizzes, obstacle courses, and word puzzles. Just some silly things to pass the time.
Season 9 has expanded the dating pool to other countries. There are people from the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand as well as those from the United States. Previous seasons of Are You The One? strictly focused on Americans finding love.
The first five seasons had ten episodes each. However, the show began increasing that number in Season 6. The episode count went from 10 to 12, then increased again in Season 7 to 14, and then went back to 12 in Season 8. Are You The One? Season 9 keeps things simple by only having 10 episodes.
Stephanie Wenger is a TV Writer/Reporter at PEOPLE. She joined the brand in 2021 as digital news writer, spanning across the site's verticals. She previously contributed to E! Online, HollywoodLife, Discover Los Angeles, Oscar.com and Hollywood.com. She appeared on air at AfterBuzz TV. She began her journalism career as an intern at Good Morning America and Access Hollywood. She graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor's in communications and received a Master's in journalism from the University of Southern California.
After working as a contributor for channels like CNN, WPIX-TV and WTNH-TV, in 2019 Crawford landed a role on the panel of rotating hosts for Season 7 of MTV series Catfish, following the departure of Max Joseph, one of the co-hosts, from the show.
Crawford, as well as other names like basketball player Nick Young, actress Kimiko Glenn and model Slick Woods, appeared alongside Nev Schulman in place of Joseph on the second half of Catfish Season 7, which aired in 2019.
Crawford has also hosted the reunion episode of Issa Rae's reality show Sweet Life: Los Angeles and is set to present the upcoming season of Ex On the Beach, as well as fronting the latest edition of Are You the One?.
Casting narrowed down the contestant applications significantly, and then looked to see which ones were perfect matches. The final pool included groups from across a spectrum of relationship experiences and backgrounds.
There were many moments where drama soared, tears were shed, and people fell in love. Even though these things may seem commonplace in reality TV, seeing queer people become vulnerable with each other and love each other so openly was a first for me. This is especially because, although we see an increasing number of complex LGBTQIA identifying characters on TV shows, they often do not get the happy ending we all wish for. This is what makes Season 8 of AYTO so special to me. 041b061a72